I had decided to leave Goa the next day and had planned to spend a few days in Delhi with Rachel before she went off on an organised tour and I came up with the next part of my plan! I think I could have stayed longer in Goa if it weren’t for the birthday night incident but boy was I glad to have booked a flight out of there!
So we packed up, left ‘Chillies’ and had an emotional goodbye to Laura at Goa airport as she was heading back home to work. I was so gutted that our little wolf pack was splitting up and that we were soon to be a man down, I felt like the three of us had been best mates for years.
I had originally planned to go to Delhi but ‘the fear’ kept me from going by myself so it was great to not be on my own. Rach and I were both a little jaded from lack of sleep and too much partying as well as not really knowing what to expect when we landed. From what others had said about Delhi I was expecting to arrive to a dirty ramshackle airport with guys preying to rob from you, harass you and confuse you. I thought there would be hoards of people all clamouring to get your business. The reality……Well it was a clean and modern airport, when we came through arrivals no one even glanced up and the free taxi the hotel provides was patiently waiting. So far so very good.We had decide to treat ourselves and booked into a hotel rather than a hostel for the few days that we were there. This modern hotel was like a 5star back home, we had room service, beds that felt like you were sleeping on a cloud, a mini bar, free wifi, hot water, flushing western toilet, and free breakfast all for £10 each! After roughing it for a while this was total luxury.
The first night we just made the most of the room, had a girly gossip, drank wine and ordered room service. The next morning we had breakfast on the hotel roof terrace and got our first taste of Delhi madness. The noise, the car horns, the traffic and the smells were intoxicating. I was desperate to get out and into the thick of it.
We went for a short drive to get our bearings but every sense is overwhelmed as soon as you step out from the hotel (Well I actually was so distracted looking all around me my flip flops slipped on the hotel steps and I was about as graceful as a hippo falling flat on my face. Great.)
There are people everywhere, in cars, in horse and carts, cows and carts, rickshaws, buses, walking down the dusty dry roads. The general traffic rule seems to be squeeze into the smallest space possible even if that means nearly killing other road users. It is so congested that most of the day was spent sat in the taxi just gawping out the window moving about two feet every ten minutes. Seeing the poverty is distressing and very real. People wearing rags, no shoes or even no clothes at all was commonplace. I remember seeing an older guy with no legs or teeth sat on a filthy mat begging, however he was wearing a wedding ring. So he is able to get hitched but I can’t, well there is hope for us all.
Seeing the slum kids got to me, they would come and bang on the window begging or perform acrobat tricks by the car to get some change. What had me in tears was seeing a girl of about 6 holding what I presume was her baby brother, both with just dirty rags on just stood on a central reservation walking through the traffic to collect littered plastic bottles.However, we were told not to give them money as there are reputable charities that help the slum children but these road kids usually have pimps who take all the cash then push the kids out the next day so the problem is just increasing.
We are both exhausted and mentally drained so head back to the hotel. On the way we decide that we needed a drink so stopped off at the equivalent of a bargain booze shop. But I doubt women regularly venture in here as it was down some alley, at the bottom of loads of steps where rowdy men were haggling over alcohol. We got ushered to the front and bought our wine whilst everyone suddenly became silent and gawped at us. Awkward. Oh well a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do I guess!
